Author Notes for The Beacon Civil War
September 2017 Chapter 1 Saturday, September 2 Here we are with a new fic. This one will have replaced Not this time, Fate – but on an unusual schedule. Instead of being every week, it's going to rotate with another fic. These will each update every two weeks, which still means you'll get a chapter every Saturday, but it will be on a rotating schedule. Alternating weeks. If in doubt, check the date at the bottom. The concept for this fic came about during the Writer Games, but actually came to me long before. Back when writing Professor Arc, a lot of people directed me towards Ciaphas Cain as someone of a similar nature. I'd never read it before, but decided to do so, and quite enjoyed it. Considering how many people said Jaune was like it, I decided that I would try and write an actual Ciaphas Cain inspired novel. It's not a direct copy, nor a crossover. Think of it more as me emulating the writing style of Sandy Mitchell, and especially some of the presentation. I hope you enjoy. --- And there we go, the first chapter. As you can probably tell, this story takes place in the first person past tense, and is definitely being `read` by someone `after the fact`. It's an unusual way to write it, but I think it will work better in the long run. Chapter 2 Saturday, September 16 Here's the second chapter of Beacon Civil War, which is definitely an unusual one to format and write compared to my other fics. Sandy Mitchell's tendency to break the flow for excerpts and comments is fairly well-known, but it's hard making sure they're detailed enough to suffice, without being so long they take away from the story. Glad to see it being well received though. --- Oh my… You know, reading back over Sandy Mitchell's work with an eye for the detail is strange and amusing. In a way, excerpts like the one at the top of this chapter where Ren (or Amberly) has someone explain the situation… these could be seen as telling, which is sort of a no-no in writing. You always want to show instead of tell, and it would have been easy to have Cain (or Jaune) show the knowledge of what happened after the cafeteria fight by discussing it with Ren. However, by having a "tell" in this sense, it actually becomes a "show", because it's an in-universe tell which shows us just how self-centred Cain (or Jaune) is. They don't bother to find out about the bigger picture because they just don't care, and that is shown by how Amberly (Ren) has to go and find someone else to explain it for you. It's weird, but it just kind of works. It's the proof of pudding in a sense, because Ren can say Jaune "doesn't really care about outside knowledge" but that would be a tell. Instead, we show it by having Jaune just never bother to try and find out. Chapter 3 Saturday, September 30 Here's the next chapter. No excerpts this time, as those mostly appear when there is something that needs to be shown or explained. Without getting into a discussion on `would they, wouldn't they`, in response to the occasional review whining that this `wouldn't happen because the students aren't this violent`, I'd point out that a) it's fiction, b) it's a training initiative, and these do happen in some military organisations, and c) the characters in the show actually did show this level of `losing themselves` to fantasy before – namely in the food fight, where they smacked each other with melons, fought, destroyed scenery, and generally all got really involved in a silly fight. During that, they acted like it was life or death, too. I'm not saying they were trying to hurt each other, but my point is that they can be kids, and they can let loose and go a bit crazy at times. It doesn't mean they hate one another afterwards, and it doesn't mean that `team trust will be destroyed` after this entirely fictional fanfic – as the occasional drama queen has suggested. --- This week has been a bit of a rush for me thanks to this show of mine, ugh. Things should be calming down a little moving forward, however, which is a relief. Anyway, here is the chapter, and Jaune's continued involvement in the Civil War grows. On the "Beacon Forums", I just equate it to the kind of thing every University has, where you can chat, post notices, download resources, etc. An intranet, I suppose. October 2017 Chapter 4 Saturday, October 14 The war continues – but harken, a change on the horizon. Is that a heroic sight we see? Yes, sort of. It's some cover art for Beacon Civil War, provided by Jack Wayne on Deviant Art. You can check it there for a close-up. --- And there we go, the war continues – and Jaune pulls off another unlikely win. Naturally, this will cause problems, especially when Nora reports back to the women. It's also clear Port has been playing too much PUBG, or maybe any of the other hundred or so games which use random air drops. But hey, the idea of a battlegrounds scenario is kind of what this is based off. Imagine Battle Royale, except that it's split into two teams – but one team is all organised, in team chat, and all got dropped next to one another. Meanwhile the other team is scattered around the map and filled with random people all with different agendas and languages. And yeah, Cardin is the Sulla of this universe. Good times. Chapter 5 Saturday, October 28 Here we go with another chapter of the war most holy. Of Mankind's struggles against the great and powerful horde. --- And off they go, leaving behind the cosy confines of a wing left out of the action and moving into a wild new world of adventure and danger. I'm sure Jaune is thrilled about it all. He really is. November 2017 Chapter 6 Saturday, November 11 It's that time again. Time for madness, genius, and the ever-present spectre of bullshit luck. It's time for the Beacon Civil War! --- And so, the glory of Jaune continues – all of it at least technically due to his genius. And a little to Nora's perhaps, but then again that was only because Jaune outsmarted her. Oh, and Sun – because even the boys need some artillery every now and then. Chapter 7 Saturday, November 25 This chapter is something of the end of the first arc of the story – although the story itself won't have too many in total. Some have asked and I don't normally answer, but the Beacon Civil War is only for five days, and no, it won't continue after it… at least the war won't, and the story will end soon after. --- So, there we go. Like I said at the top, this chapter is sort of an ending to the first main arc, the point where Jaune goes from a guy leading a small group trying to avoid and evade, to someone leading a large force who have settled down. The battle lines have been drawn – the North Wing declared their territory, but now the women know where they are and both sides can prepare for the TRUE war. This chapter may have been a little more "exposition heavy" as a result. December 2017 Chapter 8 Saturday, December 9 The War Continues --- Uh-oh. Well, I felt this excerpt was needed for the sake of giving the girl's side of events – which I'm sure plenty of people wanted. And yes, the boys held the Great Wall via the medium of pillow-fighting. That's… kind of a sign of how this "Civil War" is... Oh, just because I've had it asked – Octavia is not an OC, she is a member of Team NDGO, the all-girls team from Season 3. This story happens after Season 2 but before the start of the Vytal Festival. It's pretty much in the period between. So yes, technically speaking Cinder and her crew are here and taking part in the war. Make of that what you will. Chapter 9 Saturday, December 23 Onwards and such --- Well, there's the chapter. As everyone likely knows by now it'll be three weeks to the next thanks to my week off to rest and recover. Obviously, yes, the ending here was a pretty obvious reference. I had to resist the urge to have Sammy be told to "Fly, you fool!" And maybe I should have made her a bird faunus for that purpose. I also had to resist the following dialogue. Blake: We are the Ninja of Love and we have come for you. Jaune: What's a Ninja? Blake: It's a warrior from ancient Japan. Jaune: WHAT'S A JAPAN!? January 2018 Chapter 10 Saturday, January 13 It's been a while since I wrote a chapter of this, I suppose. It's fun to get back to it. To those who have all seen it, yes, this is definitely all about the RWBY characters getting too into a LARP experience, basically. It's an echo of their food fight moment where they divided into "Kingdoms" and waged war on one another. --- Zwei the ever-hero, even defeated and captured does he deny the women their prize at the last. Truly it is He we should be singing our praises to. Praise be unto Him. And alas for Sun, defeated in the line of duty. Press F to pay respects. And so it comes that Jaunehalla has fallen – but have the women made a grave mistake? Not giving Jaune enough credit bit them in the backside but now they've given him all the credit. We'll see how far that gets them. Chapter 11 Saturday, January 27 I've had a few people ask about references and such, and I'd like to take a quick moment to say that this fic is full of them from movies, books, and all sorts of things. It's only this story, however, and it's because it is a parody. For those who asked because they're not sure whether they should use them or not, the answer is almost always `don't`. However, if it's a pure parody – and I mean a parody, not a comedy – then it's usually considered okay. The story doesn't take itself seriously, so references and even memes if you want them are seen as tongue in cheek. I'd never put them in a normal story, however. Not unless they're by accident, etc… --- My, that was a very long excerpt at the end. I originally wrote it as Jaune's POV and part of the chapter but it didn't quite capture the essence of the scene and I re-wrote it as an excerpt. I really wanted it from the women's point of view, and specifically to show how Jaune's actions are `perceived` by their side. You can rest assured he was bricking it up there and desperately praying Pyrrha wouldn't just call an attack. Well, Jaune knows `the way` and now the men are prepared for the final battles. Will it be Magnis from OGT all over again? How many will fall? Has Jaune finally lost it and given in to the madness? Find out next time. February 2018 Chapter 12 Saturday, February 10 My business event is over, thank the heavens. Over 200 guests and my speech was utterly winged, all my time for planning and practicing lost when the TV's and Laptops didn't synch, and then I had to spend all day fixing that – and fixing the issues with the power-point presentation and video itself (which was poorly written, despite my team saying they'd checked it), and then basically walked onto the stage with nothing and winged it. Still, got ovations, was told I was inspiring, and otherwise had a lot of compliments after – as well as some people leaving comments on our "how can we improve" forms saying the speaker (me) was dry, witty, and commanded the room. Thank god for making shit up on the spot. The best part is that I was talking to construction and property professionals about stuff I didn't know, but what they did. I'm just a journalist and Editor, after all. They're the ones actually IN the industry I'm hosting an event for. On the chapter, some reviewers noticed a small error in this story in which I have before said "seven" capture points and then "nine." It was just a typo and doesn't really matter in the long run, but I've gone back and changed them all to say nine now, which will hopefully fix the issue. --- Will there be peace at last? A final deal for peace and co-operation, with the potential for a double victory should it be accepted. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but perhaps it depends on who is wielding it. We're actually quite close to the end of this fic – though I already have my next one planned. Since many have asked I will say that it isn't Professor Arc: Season 2, but that I am looking at that and making plans. Season 5 didn't give me as much in the way of… plot… as I'd hoped, but I might be able to just make stuff up based on the rather slow progression of Seasons four and five. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, just letting you know re the next fic. I'll also say it's not one of the ones off my author's page. Sorry to those looking for one of those in particular but I felt my next idea was stronger. I'll mention it more another time. Chapter 13 Saturday, February 24 This damn website! Work, damn it. Stop giving me errors and refusing to let me update stuff! Well, here we go. I didn't expect to be at this stage this week, but sometimes that is how the cookie crumbles. As some may have noticed from the summary above - if the site isn't as borked as it has been for last week or so and doesn't upload it - then the story is set to complete. It is finished. As such, this is the final chapter of the Beacon Civil War. I hope you enjoy. But realistically speaking, we all know most of you won't receive alerts, and that those who do won't be able to view it because the site will have the usual gamut of server errors. Yay! --- And there we go. I put the last two chapters into one, looking to end it on 13 because of reasons. I dunno. Anyway, that's the end of the Beacon Civil War. Zwei retains MVP Status, and Jaune pulls out a desperate gamble that relies on his enemies acting exactly as he thinks they will except that – lo and behold – his decision to release Weiss was precisely to increase the chance they would get cocky and go for an all-out attack. And yes, it's intentional for it to go third person in the end. The entire fic has basically been the teams reading through Ren's book at a cafeteria table one week after the war. All in all, it's been a fun story. Could it have gone on for another chapter or two? Maybe, but I felt it would be dragged on if it did and I wanted to avoid that. They had a treaty until two hours before the end and Jaune and Ren were trapped as prisoners. Were there another day to the war it might have been nice to have a display of how the guys can work together even without their leader – all to rescue him. But ultimately the war didn't have another day and I liked this ending. Also, it's 10k words, so arguably it's two chapters anyway. Go figure. I'm glad to see people warmed up to this story, and I hope people can see how something like this might actually be good for people - forging bonds of friendship between Cardin and Sun, for instance, but also granting everyone really good experience on what war can be like, while in a peaceful and controlled setting. --- Well, there's normally a week off before a new story comes out, but call me insane or call you lucky, but I've actually already been writing ahead on it, which means I may not need that week. As such, I'll say the new story will come out in two weeks – on the same time as this would normally. It's not one being Beta'd by College Fool for a change, though CF has seen and offered thoughts on the plan at times. This has no beta because I've just been too busy to write chapters early and actually get them to CF. It's not because of any drama between us, and CF is actually writing some stuff of his own now, so double win from my point of view. I don't really want to say what my new story will be because I don't want that to overtake the reviews at the end of this one. I might just save and keep it a surprise for once, since usually when I reveal what I'm writing some people decide to PM or comment that they don't like it even when they haven't read a single chapter or it's not out. I'll save myself the negativity in that case! It ISN'T a story on my profile however, so don't ask. It's something I came up with a few weeks back and started planning and plotting out. Category:Author Notes